Question about a famous German castle might have made the difference

Which is not a Native American tribe from the southeast? (A) Mohawk (B) Cherokee (C) Choctaw (D) Creek

The Isle of Man is found between which two countries? (A) Scotland and England (B) England and the Republic of Ireland (C) England and France

What is the lowest natural point on Earth? (A) Kurit-Kamchatka in the Aleutian Trench (B) Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (C) Tonga Trench in the Pacific Ocean

Which country is not considered entirely an archipelago? (A) Japan (B) Malaysia (C) Philippines

What is the smallest country in the world?

Hinduism is to India as (blank) is to the Latin American countries.

What state is known for its Painted Desert and Petrified Forest?

By what regional name are the people of Denmark, Norway and Sweden known?

Answers below

LONGMONT -- Out of 30 questions, only two answers separated the first- and second-place teams in the St. Vrain Valley School District's middle school geography bee.

And for the first time since 2010, a school beat Westview. Trail Ridge Middle School's Team 2 beat Westview's Team 1, 22-20. Westview Team 3 came in third place after a nine-question tie-breaking round against Twin Peaks, which had one team in the event.

Twenty teams from eight of the district's traditional middle schools and Twin Peaks Charter Academy competed at Altona Middle School on Wednesday night.

Following the bee's traditional format, students answered two rounds of questions individually, and three rounds as a team. For one round of individual questions and one round of team questions, answers were provided in a multiple-choice format. For the other rounds, they had to come up with the answers on their own.

Students on the Trail Ridge No. 1 team, left to right, Logan Stype, Brenden Worley, Joshua Ditslear, Conner Hougen and David Cervantes discuss a question at the 2013 St. Vrain Valley School District Middle School Geography Bee at Altona Middle School in Longmont on Wednesday.
(
Greg Lindstrom
)

Some of the easier questions, based on how many teams answered them correctly, were naming which continent Iceland belongs to (Europe) and what is the capital of New Mexico (Santa Fe).

On the other end of the scale, only four teams correctly answered "Volga" for the name of a major Russian river that flows in to the Caspian Sea, and all the teams missed a question about the Strait of Hormuz.

After receiving their trophy, members of Trail Ridge Team 2 discussed how they prepared for the competition.

"We research a lot on the computer and quiz ourselves," said Peter Nieuwlandt, an eighth-grader.

Doug Peairs and Jake Roberts, also eighth-graders, said they played geography games at sporcle.com.

Westview Middle School's Taryn Eveland writes the answer to a question on a white board during the 2013 St. Vrain Valley School District Middle School Geography Bee at Altona Middle School in Longmont on Wednesday.
(
Greg Lindstrom
)

Jake credited Doug with the team's correctly answering a media question -- one for which students are given a photograph or drawing as well as a question -- about a German castle that is unfinished but the most photographed castle in the world.

The answer is Neuschwanstein, but students on other teams, including Westview Team 2, said it was the most difficult question of the bee.

Maya Lippard of Westview Team 2 knew she'd seen the castle on the television reality show, "The Amazing Race," but she couldn't come up with its name, she said.

Even a Trail Ridge seventh-grader, Joshua Ditslear, said the question was the most difficult for Team 1 because "it was a castle we didn't know about."

SVVSD middle school geography bee

Answers

Which is not a Native American tribe from the southeast? (A) Mohawk

The Isle of Man is found between which two countries? (B) England and the Republic of Ireland

What is the lowest natural point on Earth? (B) Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench

Which country is not considered entirely and archipelago? (B) Malaysia

What is the smallest country in the world? Vatican City

Hinduism is to India as (blank) is to the Latin American countries. Catholicism

What state is known for its Painted Desert and Petrified Forest? Arizona

By what regional name are the people of Denmark, Norway and Sweden known? Scandinavians

The castle question accounted for one point of the difference between Trail Ridge Team 2 and Westview Team 1, but Westview Team 1 just missed answering the second question correctly.

When asked which city of more than 20 million residents was known for having the world's worst traffic, the team of five girls and one boy answered Delhi, India, instead of Bejing, China -- and Trail Ridge Team 1 got it right.

Westview's Taryn Eveland knew the right answer, but her teammates didn't agree.

"One of my aunts lived in China for a while," and complained about the traffic a lot, said Taryn, an eighth-grader.

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